Road Cone
by randomfics
Summary: Death by road cone. -oneshot-


_a/n: …I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT POSSESSED ME TO WRITE THIS, OKAY GUYS? OKAY. Now this takes place after all of the games, and kinda in an almost alternate future, especially for the PL characters. It won't make sense, I think. Just as a warning._  
_Also, uh, Character Death (but that's a given in Ghost Trick), spoilers for Ghost Trick, and kinda PL:Unwound Future._

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Death by road cone.

The man supposed that he should probably laugh. It was not the most spectacular of deaths- just simply a person tripping over a cone while running and falling into an open manhole. The very thing that the road cone was trying to warn him about.

The man frowned slightly as he hovered around his dead, still body. It was rather odd- he remembered that he had been doing something very important. It had something to do with the matter of him running.

He had been running for a very, very important reason. But for what possible reason? It didn't make sense. The man peered closer at his body- it was at a rather unsightly angle, what with the neck having been snapped instantly killing him.

A cats meow echoed down from above, and the man blinked as he tried to look up.

A black kitten with a handkerchief tied around its neck sat at the entrance of the manhole. It held a cellphone in its mouth, and it peered down into the darkness. The man smiled slightly- it seemed like life would indeed go on without him.

_Wh-What on earth?_

The black cat crouched and _jumped_, the scarf flickering into the darkness as it landed on his dead body.

The entire world went a blood-drenched red. He turned quickly, trying to find the source of the sudden change. The black kitten of before came pacing out of the red background, glowing yellow eyes on him.

_"Hello there._"

He was insane to be replying to a cat, but he didn't see why not. An acquaintance(himself?) of his could speak to animals, so why couldn't he?

"Hello. You wouldn't happen to know where this is, would you?"

_"This is the Ghost World. In other words… the land of the dead._"

"Ah. _(I already knew that I was dead though…) _Then who are you?"

The cat didn't blink. _"That's not important right now. The important part is that I can go back to save your life."_

He… didn't think that was a good idea for some odd reason. There… was another person waiting for him on the other side. Or was it people? Either way… Something was off on the idea. "Are you sure that's a good idea? You don't even know who I am."

_"… That sort of thing hardly matters. Besides, by averting your death, a different death will be averted as well."_

A…Another death?! _(Wh-Who in the world could have died as well, I know I was chasing someone for an important reason but-)_

_"A boy. I'm not sure how old. He's dressed in blue, and I think his name was Luke? That's what they're saying up there."_

"M-My thoughts- you- you can read my mind?"

_"Ah, that's right, you don't know. There are no secrets in the world of the dead. We're communicating through directly beaming thoughts into each others mind."_

"No secrets huh- but Luke… that name sounds familiar _(I know him from somewhere. But I can't remember.)_ He's dead as well?"

_"Yes."_ The black cat stretched luxuriously. _"This will all go faster if I just explain as we go."_

"Go? Go where?"

The cat arched like it was going to jump into a deep well. It looked back, and he could've sworn for that split second there was a smirk on the cat's features._"Back into the past of course- four minutes before your death!_"

They fell. Time slipped through his fingers, trickling impossibly backwards, flaunting time in all of its glory. But if time could be rewound… (There was someone he would like the cat to save if possible).

The cat explained everything as they watched him chase after the men, eyes peeled onto the struggling form of a child kidnapped against his will. The cat told him about how they could only go back four minutes, how he could only rewind time on corpses twenty-four hours old, about how he had special powers to manipulate or 'trick' objects into moving.

He kept his eyes on the teen sobbing in his captors arms, mouth moving, but unable to make out the words.

"How did he die? Luke?"

_"…(I don't think I should-)_"

"Please!"

_"(Drat, no secrets in the ghost world…) He was shot. Right in the stomach. Even if I wanted to go back and save his life, all I would find is him bleeding out from blood loss. I would be useless. Thus- if I can avert your fate, then I can avert his as well."_

Hands clenched into silent, trembling fists. It wasn't right.

It just wasn't right.

Luke was… the other person wasn't involved in this, right?

Sissel manipulated a flat tire, letting it rest against an empty soda can. The man watched himself go running past, foot kicking the can… which bounced against the tire, and slammed into his face instead, making him trip even earlier… right into the open manhole.

_"(… Ooops.)"_

"Y-You killed me even earlier."

_"G-Grrk! I don't see you offering any other solutions-"_

"Try the trees. They all have electrical wires hanging off of them, don't they?" He glanced up at the wires, arranged in a particular pattern, some of them sparking wildly. "If we could just snap one to fall directly over the manhole, we could prevent my death that way."

_"Electrical wires? But how do we know which one?"_

The cat was already rewinding time. The man stared up into the wild tangle. "Think of it like a puzzle. We just have to pick the right answer."

_"A… A **puzzle**? (No good, I'm not good with puzzles that Lynne keeps asking me for help on.)"_

Lynne? Who was this Lynne and why would she ask help from a time-traveling cat ghost with magical powers… Okay, maybe it wasn't as crazy as it originally sounded.

"I'll solve the puzzle- you just keep doing what you're doing. Together I'm sure we can solve this puzzle of my death."

_(I can't believe I'm actually doing this.)_

That made it the two of them.

The cat jumped to a piece of paper as a passing breeze spiraled it upwards for a brief second, latching onto the piece of paper stuck to the telephone pole. Quickly it leaped upwards, climbing for the very top, before pausing.

A small round ball rest on the very top. _"I can make this ball roll in whatever direction I want, but I can't make it stop. So which line should I break?"_

The manhole was one-third of the distance of the next pole too them. They had to pick a line that would not only break, but break so that way it was directly above the manhole. There were four lines, one that would break half way, another one-third, another one-fourth, and the last two-thirds of the way. Which one of them did he break?

"That line."

The cat set the ball rolling-

The line broke, and the sparking end hovered a mere few inches above the open manhole, sparking wildly. The man watched as his eyes widened, and his body threw itself to the side to avoid the broken live wire-

Straight into the street opposite where a squealing scooter tire and a scream was heard, as well as a crash.

Cat and human looked at each other with dawning dread.

_"I- That was- (That scream, wasn't it… Lynne's?)"_

Lynne. The crazy woman who asked for help on puzzles from a dead cat. Now apparently…

The cat jumped to an abandoned umbrella, and popped it open, letting it float them down gently to the ground where two still bodies lay. The man was unconscious. The woman… _"She's dead."_

The cat sounded… peeved.

_"For the twentieth time… she's dead."_

The man shook his head in disbelief. "I can stick around, if you want-"

_"Nah, it's okay, I know how to handle her. You have something a little more important to do, don't you? Go on ahead, into your future."_

"But I should always help a lady-"

The cat snorted indelicately. _"Like I said, it's fine."_

The man nodded, and opened his eyes to-

Long red hair that whipped through the wind as the scooter recklessly drove along the sidewalks, chasing after the black van. "Wh-Wha-"

"Hey!" The woman actually _looked back and grinned_. "I see that you've finally remembered! Sissel explained everything to me, and I decided to help you out like a proper detective should! So hold on tight!"

The engine revved as she kicked into high gear. Already pieces were falling into place in his had thrown himself to one side, and- immediately gotten caught up the crazy woman who babbled something about a person named Sissel and off they had gone. "By the way, I know I asked this once before, but that was before you remembered Sissel, so I'll ask again. What's your name?"

"I-It's Luke! Luke Triton! That person they've got- his name is Clive. He's older then me, but some people mistook him for me when he came visiting." Luke squeaked as they came perilously close to becoming a smear on the pavement, pulling his hat further down around his ears. "And you are?"

"Lynne! My name is Lynne! Sissel got left behind unfortunately, but so long as he has that cellphone, it should be fine."

_"I'm right here Lynne. I just moved my body somewhere safe."_ The cat's echoing voice went right into Luke's head.

Luke blinked in surprise- he could always understand animals, but still… this was new. "So-So your name is Sissel Mr Cat?"

Lynne nodded from before him, and pointed forward. "There it is! The van that kidnapped your friend! Are you ready Luke?"

"A gentlemen is always ready!"

-end-

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a/n:_ Like it? Hate it? Completely and utterly confused? Tell me please! It only takes a few seconds!_


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